


Drowning (the knowledge is not wisdom remix)

by isabeau



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: M/M, Remix, Remix Redux
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-21
Updated: 2015-06-21
Packaged: 2018-04-05 09:25:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4174659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isabeau/pseuds/isabeau
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik has a tendency to drown, and Charles has a tendency to want to save him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drowning (the knowledge is not wisdom remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [significantowl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/significantowl/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Or Like This](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3073976) by [significantowl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/significantowl/pseuds/significantowl). 



I. The first time Charles saves Erik's life, it's quite literal.

Erik's spent years honing his focus, building his rage, chasing the monster that is Sebastian Shaw. And right now, right here, Shaw is literally _within his grasp_. Erik's ready to do whatever it takes to bring him down. His own life is inconsequential, as long as he gets Shaw.

And maybe he can't pull the sub up, can't keep it still, but he can hold on to it and crush the life inside. He just needs a little more -- more time, more power, more something -- 

But then Charles is there, a warm strong body and an equally warm voice in his mind, pulling him back up. Back to a world of air and light and sound and confusion: Shaw got away, yes, but this stranger was somehow _inside his head_. Knew him, knew his name.

"I'm like you," he says.

For all the years Erik spent hunting Shaw, he'd never known of another mutant. Meeting Charles is a delight -- and Charles seems just as happy to have met him -- and Erik can't quite comprehend it, nor the reality that Charles could care enough about Erik's life, even as a complete stranger, that he would risk drowning just to save him.

Afterwards, when they're on the Coast Guard vessel and both in dry clothes with blankets for added warmth, Erik asks him: "Why?"

Charles' eyes are closed, but his mouth quirks up in a smile. "Why not?" he counters flippantly.

Erik can think of several reasons, but he stays silent, and finally Charles opens his eyes (they're blue, Erik can tell now, a vivid bewitching blue that mesmerizes him in ways he can't quite explain) and looks at him. "Would you rather I hadn't?"

"No," Erik says, and realizes later that he means it.

* * *

II. The second time Charles saves Erik, it's a lot more metaphorical.

Well, okay: if he'd fired the gun like Erik asked, and _if_ Erik had ended up being too slow, things could have gone bad. But that wasn't likely to happen. Erik's at the peak of his game, and he knows with steel-solid certainty that he would have been able to control the bullet just fine, thank you.

Except Charles doesn't fire. Doesn't want to risk it. Doesn't want to risk _Erik_ , which makes Erik equal parts warm in places he's not used to being aware of, and exasperated as hell with this contrary, unreasonable, adorable nitwit who demands that they all push their powers yet insists on _coddling_ Erik.

Coddling, and then turning right around and expecting the impossible.

Erik _tries_ to move the satellite dish that Charles dares him to, but it's too big for him. He could try all day and it would always be too big. He stops, exhausted and gasping for breath, every fiber of his body feeling drained.

But Charles doesn't look smug, the way Erik expects him to. Instead, he does ... whatever it is he does; Erik can feel something happening inside his head, but it's not clear what.

And all of a sudden Erik feels _different_. It feels like something unlocks inside him and floods through his system, something bright as fire and unstoppable as the sun, tempering the sea of anger and hatred. With it comes something he'd thought was long gone, a memory of hope and promise from before the war and before Shaw and before Erik became who he is now.

"There is so much more to you than you know," Charles tells him. "Not just pain and anger. There's good, too. I felt it. When you can access all of that, you'll possess a power no one can match. Not even me."

I already can, Erik thinks. Because of you.

And this time when he tries, he moves it.

He starts laughing, giddy and exhausted and actually _happy_. For so long, he'd seen any emotion other than cold anger -- _any_ emotion, but especially the positive ones, love and joy and peace and happiness -- as a weakness. But now Charles has once again shown him how much more there is.

He wants to say something, but then Moira calls to them through the window and the moment's lost.

It doesn't matter. There will be other moments.

* * *

III. The third time, Charles tries to prevent it before it starts.

"I can't," he says, helpless regret in his voice, and Erik stills against him. They'd had few enough chances for intimacy that doubt begins to creep in.

"Can't," Erik asks cautiously, "or don't want to?" He doesn't mean for the words to come out as cold as ice, but that's how they emerge.

Charles looks at him with a horrified expression. "No, you don't understand, I _can't_. I--" He grimaces.

"All right," Erik says, a little too calmly, and starts to stand, but Charles' hand goes to his wrist, pulling him back down.

"Don't misunderstand," Charles pleads desperately. "I want this. I _want this_ , want you, more than anything -- it's just -- I'll hurt you."

Erik laughs; he can't help it. "I'm stronger than you think."

"Not like that." Charles' hand goes to his temple, and his mouth is firmly closed when he says, //like this.// With the words comes a wave of tangled lust-need-desire-fear-want that would weaken Erik's knees if he were standing.

Oh. Erik gets it now, but he shrugs as if it didn't matter. "I can handle it."

"You don't know that."

"You've been in my head before," Erik reminds him. "I seem to have survived. Besides, I'm the strongest mutant you know. If not me, then who?"

Charles stammers at him. Erik grins widely, and Charles stutters into silence.

"Oh, Charles." He leans forward to kiss the open mouth, a move that Charles responds to like oil to an open flame, and then trails a series of kisses along the jawline to the curve of Charles' ear. "Let me do this for you," he whispers, barely louder than a breath. "Please."

Charles gulps breath in and nods, flushing ever so nicely. Erik moves slowly down his throat and chest, working with his mouth until Charles is breathless and gasping. Even with no telepathy of his own, Erik can feel Charles' power trembling erratically, wanting to be unleashed.

"I can handle this," Erik says. "Trust me."

Charles gives a laugh that is shattered and sparkling. //always did.// The words ring clear and bright in Erik's mind. Aloud, he says, "If you -- if I let this go -- if I -- I don't think I can stop it --"

"Then don't try." Erik crawls up his body to kiss him again, swallowing the protests with his mouth and palming Charles' hardness as he does so, and Charles groans and surges up into Erik's touch. His power surges with him, all control gone, like the wild battering of ocean currents closing over Erik's head and sweeping him away. Erik is barely aware of Charles' body writhing and arching between him, thrusting up into his touch; all of Erik's attention is consumed by Charles' mind.

He doesn't even fight it.

* * *

IV. //Erik, please,// Charles says into his mind, desperate and agonized. //Be the better man.//

The helmet is warm against his hands, tempting him with different promises.

A part of him has known all along that in the end he would have to choose between the only two significant men in his life -- Shaw, who awoke the monster, and Charles, who saved him more times than he can count.

He wants to choose Charles.

Want is dangerous.

//Erik, don't do this--//

Erik slips the helmet over his head and drowns in silence.


End file.
